Caterham Time…!

[timbob]

So, what with a milestone birthday looming this year and having missed my promise to myself by ten years to have either an Elise or a Caterham (for the last big birthday), I decided it was finally time…!

After a little to and fro, I decided to go with a Caterham, mainly thinking back to my late teens when no less than three school friends built kit cars and the seed having been sown. Plus (with the sensible hat on) the ability to DIY a lot of things on a Caterham appealed, with none of the awkward access and expensive clamshells on an Elise. Budget set to £16k - nothing to break the bank and limiting myself to the “lower” end of the Caterham market. Much research was conducted and I located this lovely thing through the owners club for £12,500.

It’s a late 90s car, 1600cc K-series supersport, 138hp with the stainless 4-2-1 exhaust, LSD and 6 speed box.

Few little bits to sort out - there’s a perished steering rack gaiter to replace, an MOT advisory for a dust cover on an upper suspension ball joint (I’ll probably replace both ball joints at ~£40 a side), and the seller included some new chromed rear arch protectors he’d not got round to putting on, along with a new pair of front cycle wings, as the ones on the car are a little tatty. But no bother - I didn’t want an immaculate garage queen (and nor could I afford one), I wanted something to enjoy, drive and tinker with.

First journey home round the M25 and up the A1M was… fun(!), but went out for a first proper little drive during the good weather last weekend. Absolutely love it!

 

[timbob]

Nice motor, congratulations! When are you honda k swapping and turboing it....

Haha, never! Surely the whole original point of the Lotus/Caterham 7 is the lightweight, revvy, N/A engine.

The engine in this car is probably the best bit. It has the Supersport camshafts in it, so the idle is ever so slightly lumpy (but perfectly acceptable), it has a feather light throttle, pulls smoothly without any jerkiness from near enough idle, builds quickly and urgently, and then as it passes about 5000rpm it just throws itself up the road.

I can only see turbo lag being annoying and not adding anything to the experience? Plus Honda’s K engines go backwards (IIRC) which would mean all sorts of faff with gearboxes and other assorted (expensive) problems to solve…

 

[timbob]

So many happy memories......

Bought my first one back in about 1993. My build diary was the first web page I ever wrote.

It's still there of anyone is interested!

Prepare for some awesome page design!

Ben Hodson's Caterham Seven Build Page

Wowzers, blast from the past!

Love the warning and extra link to the whole 170kb image at the top. And all the old school html. And being able to afford to casually decide to go for a meal out…

 

[timbob]

My biggest hurdle to using mine as a commuter car was finding someone that would actually insure it for commuting. I had to insure via a specialist and most of them (for me) only included SD&P.

Perhaps I got lucky - I got commuting included with AF for an extra £10-£20 (can’t remember exactly), for those occasional sunny summer mornings!

 

[timbob]

Don’t forget they’re not really mass produced every day cars with decades of advancement in rustproofing etc, designed for driving through the winter weather day in, day out.

It’s a mild steel tubular frame (powdercoated, yes, but it can and will chip) which is going to be particularly susceptible to the winter salt on the roads. I don’t plan on driving mine through the winter!

 

[timbob]

Seems like a shame not to use it for half the year :/ Can they not be weather sealed?

They can - in that you could liberally coat the chassis tubes in waxoyl (or similar)… but you’ve still got the various grit traps where the aluminium skin is folded and riveted, around the chassis. Any salt getting in there is only going to accelerate the bi-metallic corrosion.

You can use them all year round, but I’d wager even a 3 or 4 year old car used year round is going to be in a worse state than a 20 year old car that’s garaged and only used in the dry.

 

[timbob]

How's the caterham going? Starting to think about this as an option for myself. Similar budget to the OP for something like this. Not really sure which is the go to model to aim for

Absolutely love it. Been out here and there in it every opportunity I’ve had, perhaps 10 or 12 times now, a few family members have had rides and the other Friday was lovely so I took it on the hour’s drive to work (the long way)!

Bit of tinkering in the garage already - new mirrors and mirror mounts, and gathered the bits together now to replace the perished steering arm gaiter. That’s this weekend’s job…

But in the main, just getting used to it and starting to get a feel for it, bit by bit. It steers like nothing else I’ve ever driven. The feel is amazing. And it’s so simple and mechanical - you can literally tell how coarse the stones are in the tarmac.

There’s no “go-to” model, I don’t think, but a huge variety. It feels like there’s plenty of power in mine (138hp) but I wouldn’t want it any slower. You can certainly tell when you’ve got a passenger - the difference is very noticeable. Mine will be about 600kg including myself as driver. With a heavier passenger, the weight is pushing 700kg and the power to weight (which is what it’s all about) goes from 230/tonne to under 200… I like the windscreen. With the side screens on as well it’s fairly civilised (comparatively…) and the leather seats are comfy. I think you need to decide what use you want out of it - a car for the road with a screen, side doors, leather seats, carpets and sensible tyres will be very different from a track toy, which will have carbon seats, an aeroscreen and minimum road legal tread cut slick tyres on it.

Once you’ve worked out what you want to use it for and the spec you’re looking for, it’s well worth sitting in one. I joined the owners club and went along to a meet up before I bought mine. I’m 5’9” and only 12 stone - I certainly wouldn’t want to be any fatter to fit in mine (which is an S3 chassis - the SV is wider).

 

[timbob]

Im looking again!

1 year on, how have you got on with It?

One year on and I’m absolutely loving it, I managed to use it pretty frequently last year - at least weekly - through the “Caterham season”.

Fresh MOT (with no advisories) for this year and I’ve been out every opportunity I can this spring. I’ve been to work in it a handful of times, set the alarm for 4am one Sunday recently to go out for a dawn run with the local club group on a fantastic 80 mile route, passenger rides for mates/family. I’m getting more and more tuned into how it drives and moves around and just find it so intuitive and enjoyable to blat about in.

Some good tinkering has taken place too - I sorted the steering rack gaiter and drilled the rear wings and attached the chrome wing guards last year. This year I’ve removed the drivers seat to fix a broken back panel, wire brushed the crusty patches on the underside of the chassis to treat a few patches of surface rust under some loose bits of powder coat and then got two coats of Hammerite on. Likewise I’ve tidied up the leading edges of the front wishbones which were a little scabby. I’ve now got a kit to install a USB charger port, looking at adding a high level brake light (after seeing how visible the other cars were on the run, and after nearly being rear ended by a van who didn’t see me until the last minute whilst I waiting to turn right on one occasion last year…!) Been researching potential stickier tyre options too - Toyo R888R seem to be the front runners so far…

Long story short, the bug has totally bitten - I just love it!

 

[timbob]

Thanks for the update, sounds fantastic.

I'm certainly looking out for a good buy here and there and if something pops up, I'd be keen to go and have a look.

Currently have an S2000 which I love, but I'm partly thinking of getting a cheap run around and swapping the s2000 for a Caterham. Just need to be sure, as I've only had the S for a year and love it.

But only garage space enough for one

Tin top and a Caterham - you know it makes sense.

No need to compromise or worry about the fun car being off the road whilst you tinker temporarily, leaving you stranded and unable to get to work on Monday.

The best advice I got was to go full geek out on the various models and specs available, then get on the club forums and get along to a meet up. I got the chance to see a few different cars up close and chat to the owners. I’m very pleased with the choice I made for the spec of car, given the budget I had, following that advice.